The present application is based on Japanese Patent Application No. 2001-309936, which is incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a side spacer structure in a connector for retaining terminals respectively received into terminal receiving chambers of a connector housing and more particularly to a side spacer structure in a connector, which structure is designed to have members for temporarily retaining terminals and members for releasing the terminals from being retained.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a conventional side spacer structure in a connector, lances for temporarily retaining terminals and slip-off blocking portions for securing terminals are provided in a projecting condition in a manner alternating with each other as shown in FIG. 7 (see Japanese Unexamined Patent Application No. JP-A-04-22079).
In a conventional side spacer structure, temporary retaining lances 4 and slip-off blocking portions 7 are provided alternately with each other to branch plates 3 provided in proximity in a row arrangement to a base portion 2 so as to respectively correspond to a plurality of terminal receiving chambers 12 which will be described later.
The temporary retaining lance 4 has a retaining face 5 coplanar with the top surface 8 of the slip-off blocking portion 7 and when the retaining face 5 is brought into contact with the edge face 15 of a female terminal 14, the female terminal 14 can temporarily be retained (see FIG. 8). Further, the temporary retaining lance 4 has a tapered face 6 tilting forward (upward in FIG. 7) from the retaining face 5.
The slip-off blocking portion 7 has the top surface 8 as a plane substantially perpendicular to the direction in which the terminal is inserted, the top surface 8 being formed in a position where it comes in contact with the edge face 15 of the female terminal 14. When the side spacer 1 is finally secured, the female terminal 14 can finally be retained by making the top surface 8 come in contact with the edge face 15 of the female terminal 14 (see FIG. 9).
A temporary retaining pawl 9 for temporarily retaining the side spacer 1 in a housing body 11 (see FIGS. 8 and 9) is provided at the front end of the base of the branch plate 3 and moreover a final retaining pawl 10 for securing the side spacer 1 in the housing body 11 is provided at both upper and lower ends of the base portion 2.
The temporarily retained condition of the spacer is shown in FIG. 8. When the side spacer 1 is inserted into the housing body 11 and temporarily retained, the temporary retaining lance 4 is disposed so that the retaining face 5 is positioned in the terminal receiving chamber 12. When the female terminal 14 is inserted into the terminal receiving chamber 12 from behind (downward in FIG. 8), the temporary retaining lance 4 is brought into slidable contact with the side of the female terminal 14 and undergoes elastic deformation toward the outer side of the terminal receiving chamber 12. On the arrival of the female terminal 14 in position in the terminal receiving chamber 12, the temporary retaining lance 4 subjected to the elastic deformation is returned to the original position, whereby the retaining face 5 comes to contact the edge face 15 of the female terminal 14. Thus, the female terminal 14 can temporarily be retained in position within the terminal receiving chamber 12.
When the side spacer 1 is thrust into the housing body 11 after the female terminal 14 is temporarily retained, the side spacer 1 is finally secured in the housing body 11. When the side spacer 1 is finally secured as shown in FIG. 9, the temporary retaining lance 4 (see FIG. 8) is released from the edge face 15 of the female terminal 14 whereby to make the top surface 8 of the slip-off blocking portion 7 retain the edge face 15 instead. As the slip-off blocking portion 7 is never released from the edge face 15 because of the elastic deformation, the female terminal 14 is finally secured in position within the terminal receiving chamber 12.
When the female terminal 14 is pulled out of the housing body 11, the side spacer 1 is returned to the temporary retaining condition as shown in FIG. 8. Further, a jig (not shown) is inserted into a terminal releasing hole 13 and brought into contact with the tapered face 6 of the temporary retaining lance 4 whereby to make the temporary retaining lance 4 undergo the elastic deformation toward the outer side of the terminal receiving chamber 12. In other words, the retaining face 5 and the edge face 15 are released from being retained together, so that the female terminal 14 is allowed to move backward.
However, as the size of the housing body decreases in size, the temporary retaining lance is also made smaller and thinner. In other words, the allowable stress of the temporary retaining lance against elastic deformation lowers. In case where the jig is used to displace the temporary retaining lance when the terminal is released from being retained, the problem is that there may occur elastic deformation or damage caused to the temporary retaining lance.
An object of the invention intended to solve the foregoing problems is to provide a side spacer structure in a connector so devised as to prevent the deformation of and damage to temporary retaining lances when terminals are released from being retained.
In order to accomplish the object above, there is provided a side spacer structure in a connector comprising:
a connector housing having at least one of terminal receiving chambers in each of which a terminal is accommodated;
a side spacer mounted from a side face of the connector housing, the side spacer including
an outer member having a U-shape, and
a branch plate projecting from the outer member in a direction in which the side spacer is inserted to the connector housing,
the branch plate including a tentative retention lance for temporarily retaining the terminal inserted into the terminal receiving chambers from a fitting side of the connector housing,
a securing portion for securing the terminal in a state for operation, and
a terminal releasing lance provided in a side portion of the tentative retention lance;
wherein a front end of the terminal releasing lance is positioned backward than a front end of the tentative retention lance in a fitting direction of the connector housing.
In the side spacer structure in the connector thus arranged, the terminal releasing lance is provided in the side portion of the tentative retention lance in a connected row arrangement, so that it is only needed to make the terminal releasing lance undergo elastic deformation when the terminal is released from being retained. At this time, since a front end of the terminal releasing lance is positioned backward than a front end of the tentative retention lance, the terminal releasing lance in the direction of inserting the terminal is set shorter in length than the lance for temporarily retaining the terminal.
Therefore, the displacement amount required to make the terminal releasing lance undergo the elastic deformation can be made smaller than the displacement amount required to directly make the lance for temporarily retaining the terminal undergo the elastic deformation, which results in decreasing the load applied to the lance for temporarily retaining the terminal. Thus, the lance for temporarily retaining the terminal is prevented from undergoing plastic deformation as well as being damaged when the terminal is released from being retained.